126 court of appeals of maryland

shall be prepared to enter upon the duties of the office to which
the President has been pleased to appoint me.⁴⁵

Cases were for some years after 1806 taken up in
their order without any postponement because of
absence of counsel, unless the absence should be
occasioned by sickness or other good cause,⁴⁶ and
the difficulties of travel then made it out of all
question for counsel to be ready when needed
except by constant attendance. Latrobe has said⁴⁷
that when, in 1832, he retained Daniel Webster to
take the place of Taney in the argument of the
case of C. & O. Canal Co, v. B. & O. Railroad,⁴⁸
it was arranged that they should set out from
Baltimore for Annapolis on the next day, but that
several days would elapse before the case would
be reached. "The journey", he says, "was per-
formed in a hack and pair through the melancholy
country lying between Baltimore and Annapolis,
and occupied the greater part of the day."

Only a few of the leading lawyers of the State
now retained residences in Annapolis, and the
bar of the court came mainly from distant points
to open a term. One by one, or in small groups,
lawyers and judges would ride in and present
themselves at the City Hotel; and there they lived
together during the days of the sessions. John P.
Kennedy has left us this description of the as-
semblage during the second quarter of the cen-
tury:⁴⁹

45. Tyler, Memoir of Taney, 173.

46. Rules 10 and 11, of 1806.

47. Semmes, 371.

48. 4 Gill & Johnson, 1.

49. Kennedy, II, 434.